As I sat in my den with my 78-year-old father and witnessed that defining moment in American History when Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first black president on November 4, 2008, I had to hold back the tears. As I witnessed thousands of Blacks in Grant Park and my 78-year-old father jump and shout for joy I realized that as wonderful and surreal as that moment was; we as a people are still not free. 

Blacks can no longer justify a lack of success in life because of white racism alone. Barack Obama’s stunning victory is living proof that in America you can succeed if you get a good education and work hard - the American Dream. Just how much can a Black President help an unskilled and uneducated black person? If the President create opportunities for him, he has to be willing to pull up his pants and take advantage of them. If the President opens the door for him he has to be willing to pull up his pants and walk through it. 

I pray that President-elect Obama will be truthful with the Black community and admit that most of the problems that Blacks suffer is not the result of President Bush’s failed policies. President-elect Obama cannot solve all of the problems in the Black community by himself. We have to pull up our pants and help ourselves by accepting the fact that its not just white racism that holds the Black man down, its too much television, too much drinking and smoking, a lack of emphasis on educational achievement and too many homes without fathers. 

The election of the first Black President and we are still not free!

In the words of my dad, “If these gas prices get any higher I am going to buy me a horse!”